[Surgery in De Medicina of Celsus]

Rediscovered during the Renaissance, Celsus' work (1st Century AD) is the first latin encyclopaedia. We only have his medical works, and we are indebted to him for his classification of diseases according to treatment: by diet, by drugs and manually, that is by surgery. Although surgery was described in Hippocrate's works, Celsus gave the first latin presentation, outlining, general and localised operations, in the VIIth book of De Medicina. The VIIIth book is devoted to orthopaedic operations which are sometimes quite different from Hippocrate's descriptions. For the first time, he describes many surgical instruments, most of which have been found by archaeologists. Finally, ethical considerations widen the epistemological field of surgery and separate it as autonomous specialty.